The beginning of my Journey with the New York Founder Institute

I’ve always been interested in what’s going on in the startup scene so I subscribed to the Founder Institute’s mailing list a while ago. I really enjoy the content that they send out since I always like to learn new insights, strategies or just to know about new startup companies.

A couple of months ago, they sent out information about their Founder Institute Program. I didn’t really know what it was about but I thought that it might be something that can be beneficial for one of my startups I’ve been working on called Paid Exposure.

I kept receiving emails about applying to this program for weeks but I just ignored them. There was a $50 application fee but you can submit an application for free if you apply before a specific deadline date. But after researching a little more about it, I learned that you would actually have to pay like $2,000 to enroll IF you get accepted.

So, I told myself, “Fuck that?!” I don’t know if I should be using my money for that when I can use that to re-invest money into Fukitt, my apparel company, or use it for one of my startups. It just didn’t make sense to do it.

But as it came closer to the deadline date, I kept seeing that it’s FREE to apply. I thought to myself, “It’s free to apply. I wonder if I would get accepted. Fuck it. Let me see what this application is about.” So, I clicked on the link to apply for the program. This is their admissions process.

I don’t really remember it so much anymore but I think it just asks for some basic questions about some personal information and if I already have an idea or a startup in motion. Then after filling out the basic information, the next step was the Predictive Admissions Assessment, which is “a proprietary psychometric/ aptitude test developed by the Founder Institute and leading social scientists”.

I didn’t know what it was but it sounded pretty serious. It even had a warning note stating that I should take this test after getting a lot of rest. I said to myself, “It can’t be that fuckin’ hard. What could this test be about that I need rest for it?!” I remember it being late at night after working all day so I was contemplating on it.

But I said, “Fuck it.” I just wanted to know what it’s about. Anyway, I continued to take the test without heeding their warning. Once I started, I thought it was actually really awesome! It was like a game and it was really challenging. It’s like one of those things that people would share on Facebook where you had to predict what the pattern is within the images given to you.

As I was going through it, it was getting harder and harder. I thought to myself, “Maybe I SHOULD have gotten some rest before I took this?!” Haha! I enjoyed the challenge though so I just kept going. I didn’t know if I was getting timed in the background during the test, so I was a panicking a little bit.

Then it went through some questions with different options for answers about my personality, character, etc. I thought it was going to be easy but their options were sometimes contradicting and they really force you to pick an answer that you wouldn’t normally say about yourself.

It really makes you aware of the type of person that you think you are… I answered them in the best way that I could and finally finished the application. I was done and I wondered how I did.

Anyway, I wasn’t really expecting anything out of it. I just wanted to see how I would do on it. It said that they’ll send out emails if you pass the test and accept your application. I think it was about a week until the deadline.

Then out of nowhere, I received an email that said, “ Your Admissions Decision…” I was expecting to be denied just to lessen the blow to my feelings and ego. I just thought to myself, “It’s fuckin’ free anyway so who cares if I don’t get accepted.”

Then I opened the email…

I was actually stoked that I was accepted! It was rad that I scored 25% of over 30,000 applicants across the globe! I was thinkin’ was, “That’s cool. Glad to know I did well but I don’t want to invest the money and time right now.”

I never told my wife that I applied for this program so I mentioned the email to her. I said, “Hey, babe. Check this out. I got accepted to the Founder Institute program and it says that I scored 25% of over 30,000 other people.” Then I mentioned to her how difficult the questions were and how cool the Predictive Admissions Assessment was with predicting patterns.

Now that I was accepted, I started researching it a little bit more. It sounded really awesome. It seemed that I would learn so much with the experience. I don’t really have friends who I can discuss business at this level so I was really intrigued by it.

After talking about what the program was about, Kristen said to me, “Why don’t you do it then?” I said, “Yeah, but you have to pay like $1,500?! Fuck that.” I guess I kept talking about how cool it would be to be surrounded by these mentors of different startups that she finally said, “I think you should do it.”

Once again… I said, “Fuck it. I’m going to do it. If I’m serious about launching my startup idea, this would be a great way to kickstart it, right? You’re allowed to drop out before the 3rd session and get a full refund anyway?”

And so my journey begins… I’ve decided to document my journey with this startup to inspire those of you who are still making excuses to pursue their ideas instead of making the decision to try.

Most people talk about their startup experience only when they’ve already succeeded but I want to show people the journey during my attempt.

I don’t want to regret not trying. Kristen Zulueta and I think it’s worth it. We don’t know what’s going to happen or if I’m going to graduate from the program but we just don’t believe it’s impossible, so fuck it…

As my motto with Fukitt says: “Live life without regret and accept challenges worth the risk.”

Thanks for reading and I hope you follow me to let you know about my journey with everything that I’m working on…

Cheers,
Ricardo J. Zulueta, Jr.